Thrift Store Score: A Vintage Pocketbook

This was supposed to be a blog post about the divorce process in Denmark. But I’ve been booked 60ish hours a week with client work… a freelancer’s dream and a boon for this recent divorcée with a mortgage to pay. However, it’s not the ideal situation for writing a thoughtful and thorough blog post on a complicated topic. So instead, I’m going to share what I think is one of my best thrift store finds ever (in Denmark) and offer you a raincheck on the post about the divorce process in Denmark.

Synopsis: Divorces in Denmark are done online, my prenup nearly bit the dust, and I didn’t know I was actually divorced until a couple of weeks after the fact. 

Right as the divorce chaos was at its peak and I was wondering how the fuck self-employed me was going to get even a minuscule mortgage, I booked a full-time consulting gig that was supposed to last until June. Now they’ve extended my contract through at least the rest of the year!

When I first left my salaried corporate gig to go freelance, his lordship liked to say that I was “semi-retired.” Fuck that. The day after resigning, I woke up knowing that was the day I’d begin building my (our) future. It was never a vanity project. This was my career 2.0 and I was determined to rock it. I shudder to think where I’d be if I’d settled into a life of homemaking, blogging, and sometimes working. I also wonder how he was planning to finance that.

Now I’m commuting about three hours round-trip two days a week to consult onsite with a former employer. The commute (and search for on-street parking in the city) nearly killed me last time around, but now I work from home the other three days so it’s manageable.

I pass by one of Denmark’s main airports on my way to the office and many Aarhusians want an alternative to the expensive and inconvenient airport bus. I’m registered with a rideshare website and I have a full car pretty much every time I commute. I charge roughly 1/3 less than the bus, which covers my fuel costs, plus I meet a lot of cool people. Earlier this week I drove a DJ who was here to play a club, and last week I drove a PhD student from Brussels who misses her cat and offered to feed Opie for me when I travel. It sure beats having an empty car :)

So moving on to the main point of this post…

One of my best thrift store finds ever (in Denmark)!

I haven’t used the word “pocketbook” since I moved out of my grandmother’s house many moons ago, but somehow, “pocketbook” just seems more appropriate than “purse” or handbag” in this case.

In Aarhus, my chances of encountering some of my lifetime best thrift store finds ever are between slim and none. The city is full of university students living on student budgets so the best things are sold pretty much as soon as soon as they come in. The best thrift stores are out in the suburbs, far away from the bus routes.

My main consulting gig is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, where competition for the holy grail of thrift shop finds isn’t at all what it is in Aarhus. I try to swing by the two local thrift shops once a week. It’s not a wealthy area, so the donations aren’t stellar and I come up empty handed most of the time, but I lucked out the other day because everything in the store was 50% off and I found this vintage pocketbook for 22.50 kr. (less than $4!!!!).

I’ve found a lot of great secondhand things over the years, but I consider this to be one of my best thrift store finds ever in Denmark! I’ve been looking for a vintage granny chic pocketbook like this for aeons and have found quite a few, but the insides are usually gross, or the leather is cracked, or they just look tired. Not this one! It’s in pristine condition and even came with a little mirror. I have a feeling its previous owner “saved it for good” as my grandmother used to say.

I’ve been thrift shopping on and off since the early ’90s. I wish I had photos of some of my treasures from that era. I scored most of my best thrift store finds ever back then because stuff from the 1960s and ’70s was just hitting the shops and I’d often find things like a vintage 1960s faux leopard fur swing coat, Gunne Sax dresses, and psychedelic mini-dresses that I thought looked so cool with my fishnets and 8-eye Doc Martens. I wish I’d held onto some of those things because my style has evolved over the years, but the 60s have always been my style muse.

While I love my Louis Vuitton handbags, the stress of carrying them isn’t always worth it. This vintage pocketbook is a perfect alternative. I love that it’s classic without being pretentious, and pretty without being precious. It’ll go perfectly with summer dresses, my poncho, and my (growing collection of) Swedish Hasbeens. My new pair of black Fredricas came today and I love them almost as much as my red ones! Now that I’m single again I can afford to treat myself well and often :)